How to speak Argentinian Spanish

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So, you’ve set you mind on Argentinian Spanish. You’ve been taken by this peculiar mix of Spanish and Italian, and now you would like to understand exactly how to make your Spanish more Argentinian.

Is that you?

Well, my dear Watson, the answer is very simple: listen (and if possible speak) to natives as much as possible. Get obsessed, imitate and repeat, even when you are not totally sure what people are saying. Find pleasure in mirroring the intonation, stress and rhythm of natural speech.

I’m sorry! Contrary to the expectations that might have brought you here, there is no recipe for authentically speaking Argentinian Spanish other than this.

Well, hold on, as we’ve covered in other posts, there are a few things you can apply right now:

Three quick tweaks can help you sound more Argentinian instantly:

Turning all /y/ and /ll/ into sounds of ‘sh’.

Read these words out loud and concentrate on getting an even /sh/ sound for all of them:

  • ya – allá – llamar – yang – callar – pantalla – playa – silla – cebolla – cosquillas
  • yen – ayer – calle – Ayelén – llegar
  • ying
  • yo – yoga – yogur – tuyo – uruguayo – coyote – amarillo – Nueva York – mayonesa
  • lluvia – yuyo – Yucatán

Nonsensical poetry you can apply to your practice:

  • El yogur uruguayo me hace cosquillas.
  • Hay mucha mayonesa en las calles de Nueva York.
  • Ayelen, la uruguaya, hace clases de yoga con lluvia.
  • Ayer llegué a Yucatán y un coyoté huyó.
  • El amarillo es tuyo? Está en la silla
  • Ya no hay sillas. Hay que pelar cebollas.

Conjugate verbs in the present using VOS forms

All you have to do is drop -AR, -ER, -IR from the infinitive form and add -ÁS, -ÉS, -ÍS

  • ¿Cómo te llamás?
  • ¿Cuántos años tenés?
  • ¿Dónde vivís?

In the present, VOS forms have no irregular forms, except for the verb SER (which turns into SOS, not ERES).

  • ¿De dónde sos?

Come HERE to learn more about VOS forms

Use the right words

You’ll want to adjust your vocabulary. Remember that there are NOUNS, VERBS and ADJECTIVES that we use in Argentina and not everywhere else.

Well, this is the furthest we can go without actual interaction, but you can find some useful material in the resources section.

And also, we can team up and meet for a lesson!

Happy Spanish learning,

You might also want to read these articles:

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  • Pizza in Argentina
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  • Put your pen to ink
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  • The Paradox of Choice
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  • Argentinian Spanish Input (part 1)
    In this post, I included podcasts you can try to leverage your learning with natural input.

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